She's Like the Wind
by Marissalyn
Summary: Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Laura "Cupcake" Hollis falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Carmilla Karnstein. or The Dirty Dancing AU no one asked for.
1. Lesson One: Eye Contact

"Oh, you got to know

You see me everywhere that you go

Doesn't that say something

Obsession's taken hold of me, yeah

All because of you."

-'Overload' by Zappacosta

XXX

 _To tell the story of my first love we'll have to travel back to the summer of 1963. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles, when I still wanted to join the peace corp, and I didn't think I'd find someone as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to the Lawrence Resort._

 _Now I remember this summer distinctly because it's not just any day you are forced to go on a vacation when you were perfectly fine with staying home and getting ready to say goodbye to all of your friends before the summer ended. I remember it because it was the first day of what would later change me for the rest of my life; for the better I hope._

XXX

Laura sat in the passenger seat, looking out around the resort as her father came to a stop in front of the main building to check in. There were multiple cars being taken care of by valet and the like, as Laura took notice to a woman with rather shapely hips and a mane of beautiful curly red hair speaking through a bullhorn, announcing the rest of the day's events.

Laura followed suit of her father, climbing out of their car and watching as a towering man almost as tall as her father made his presence known. "You must be the Hollis'." He said in a very chipper tone, one that Laura didn't really care for and her father loved.

"That we are, and you must be Mr. Lawrence." Alaric Hollis said, pointing a finger in the direction of what was probably an ex-army soldier's physique.

"Please, call me Andrew." The man said, holding his hand out to shake.

Laura sighed, already feeling the heat of the sun beating down on her back. If only she was home in her own room where she had her own air conditioning unit to herself.

She noticed a boy not much older than her; pop the trunk of her car and beginning to remove her and her father's suitcases. Going over to help, Laura quickly emptied the car, working around the guy as she went.

"Hey, you want a job here?" He asked rather shocked at her willingness to help, but before Laura could respond with a question of her own, Alaric was quick to bring her back into the conversation he was having with Mr. Lawrence.

"Hey Laura, I hope you packed your dancing shoes, because I just signed us up for group lessons!"

Laura fought the urge to roll her eyes, instead turning back to the guy whose nametag read Wilson, was smirking to himself. It seemed that the heat wave that was currently going on around them wasn't going to be the thing she loathed most that summer.

XXX

Dancing. It was something Laura never thought she herself would be interested in. In fact she obviously wasn't all that into it, but she was dancing alongside her father to appease him, and also what she could only assume the rest of their vacation was going to look like. Laura would spend the rest of her summer with her father, hoping that he would think her to be everything he had ever raised her to be, and send her off at the end of August with a proud smile on his face.

"Alright, now let's have everyone take a partner to learn the next dance, the mambo!" The dance instructor announced. Now this dance instructor wasn't what Laura had expected to see when they entered the gazebo, but she wasn't disappointed to say the least. She was beautiful, blonde and perky, everything an instructor should be, no matter what they were teaching.

She was moving around now to make sure everyone had a partner, and from what Laura could understand, she was purposely setting everyone up with a complete stranger, which only meant that she was either going to have to get cozy with the elderly woman standing next to her, or she was just going to slip out of the lessons without being noticed, which was becoming exceedingly more difficult of doing once the dance instructor stood in front of her.

The blonde dancer paired Alaric with the elderly woman, before looking over at Laura and smiling kindly. "And you'll be my partner."

Laura all but stopped breathing for a second or two, forgetting for a moment that she was at a high-end resort, standing in front of a beautiful woman, and looking like a fish out of water. She had graduated from high school all but two weeks ago; she really needed to get that horny lesbian teenager thing under wraps. It's not like she had never seen a pretty girl before, it was just one of the few times that she was the center of their attention.

"I'm Ell by the way." The woman said, taking Laura's hands and positioning them properly on her hips.

"Laura." She managed to introduce herself with maybe half a stutter, which she couldn't help but be embarrassingly proud of.

After what seemed like forever, most people gave up on trying to learn the mambo, which led Ell to start a conga line. Laura felt much better without the attentive eyes of the blonde staring right at her as she asked her whole life story in less than twenty questions. The dancing was soon after that finished, and Laura hoped that she wouldn't have to dance again any time soon.

XXX

Laura had been sitting and trying to read a book her aunt had gifted her for graduation for the past hour. Something about genomes and the like, but she couldn't get into it. Science was never really her friend; she found the field of study vastly interesting, but in return it hated her.

She shifted in her chair, setting the book down onto the table, and told her father that she was going to check out the rest of the resort.

"Okay, well be careful kiddo, and remember that we have dinner with the Lawrence's later tonight, so don't be gone for too long." Ric called out to her from behind his newspaper.

"I won't." Laura said over her shoulder as she left the cabin and made her way down the dirt path towards the rec hall.

The resort itself was very nice, it held the air of money and structure, leaving little room for originality and creativity, but that was fine. It was a high-end resort after all.

After seeing all that there was really worth seeing, Laura decided she would head back to the cabin, passing the dining hall on the way. She couldn't help but overhear a conversation being had with what sounded like Mr. Lawrence in a louder voice, as if lecturing.

"There are two kinds of workers around here." Andrew Lawrence said from where he stood in front of what appeared to be the entire waiting staff.

Laura crept up towards a window to see from a better angle.

"The kind that work hard and get hefty tips and a decent pay check, and the kind that work moderately and depend on his coworkers to get the job done, the kind who get mediocre tips and a small pay check at the end of the week." Mr. Lawrence continued in what he must of thought was a stern and knowledgeable tone, as if he had ever worked a minimum wage job in his entire life.

Laura rolled her eyes as she heard another voice in the room.

"You got that guys?"

It was a feminine voice of a huskier scale, the person behind it entering the room a moment later.

Laura watched as a woman not much older than her strolled past the waiting staff and flicks one with short red hair in the shoulder.

"Ah, Ms. Karnstein, pleasure of you to join us at work this evening." Mr. Lawrence greeted.

Laura took this Karnstein girl in, from her curly dark hair to the leather jacket hanging over one shoulder, sunglasses adorning her face, and leather pants that could make you sin all on their own.

Mr. Lawrence sidled up closer to the girl and continued speaking. "You see, the waiting staff here were actually being instructed in their jobs, while the entertainment staff were just rolling in for their work of keeping the guests busy. Consider them babysitters." He said to the waiting staff, the snide remark met with a few chuckles here and there.

Karnstein's jaw tensed, her sunglasses moving up into her hair, as she looked Mr. Lawrence in the eye. "I guess you're right, sir."

"Of course I am, I wouldn't hire you if I wasn't."

Karnstein nodded, removing her hand from the short red head's shoulder and heading out of the room.

"Oh, and Carmilla." Mr. Lawrence addressed her once more when she reached the door.

Carmilla turned to face him, one brow raised in question.

"Remember, you have your own rules too. You dance with the customers and you teach them whatever they pay for, and that's it. No funny business like last summer you hear me? I'm giving you a second chance because of your mother, no conversation with the customers, and keep your hands off when not dancing. You understand, I'm sure."

Carmilla nodded, flipping her sunglasses back over her dark eyes, and turning on her heel to leave the dining hall.

A girl standing near Mr. Lawrence turned to look at Carmilla's fleeting back and called out, "Do you think you can handle keeping your hands to yourself, Karnstein?" She must've thought herself to be funny for the look of pure amusement on her face.

Carmilla chuckled to herself as she turned around, "If they look anything like you, I won't have any problems at all, Lawrence!"

Laura then watched as Carmilla past her without so much as a second glance, heading up a hill towards what looked like more cabins.

"Now, dinner is in half an hour, make yourselves busy." Mr. Lawrence said to the staff, heading back into the kitchen, the girl following behind him.

XXX

Ric and Laura headed up to the dining hall together, quickly being seated at a table reserved for them by Andrew.

"Well this is pretty fancy, don't you think?" Alaric asked as he turned to his daughter.

Laura looked up at him from where she was staring out of the window she was peeping through not even an hour before. "Yeah, it's nice."

"I'm glad I put my snazzy belt buckle on." Mr. Hollis continued as he looked down at the menu in front of him.

"Oh, no need for that. I already ordered our meals, hope you don't mind." Mr. Lawrence said, as he appeared at the end of the table, the girl from earlier standing next to him.

Alaric looked up with a broad smile on his face, "Not at all, that's very nice of you actually."

Andrew nodded his head, turning to the girl beside him. "This is my daughter, Danielle."

"Just call me Danny." She said, looking directly at Laura.

Laura found herself gulping, there were a lot of attractive women at this resort. Danny had to be at least six foot, towering over the table as she sat down in what surprisingly didn't look like a clown getting into a ridiculously tiny car. Her long red hair was braided and hung over one shoulder, pairing nicely with the pale blue button up she had rolled the sleeves up on.

"Nice to meet you Danny. I'm Alaric, but you can call me Ric."

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Ric." Danny said as she took a sip from her water glass. Setting the glass down, she then turned to Laura, "Nice to meet you too, Laura."

"Well, now that pleasantries are out of the way, let's talk foundations." Andrew announced.

XXX

Laura thought that if she had died and was reincarnated into a professional dancer, it'd be too soon. Which was why when all of the guests moved down to the rec hall, and Danny asked Laura to dance, that she had a fleeting thought of drowning herself in the lake.

Dancing with Danny was like dancing with her own father, she clearly never danced a moment in her life, not like Laura had danced much either, but at least she knew the dancing etiquette of not stepping on your partner's toes.

"So what college are you going to?" Danny asked, her hands damp from perspiration.

Laura smiled timidly, "Well, actually I'm going into the peace corp."

"Oh, really?" Danny asked, sounding part disappointed and part judgmental.

Laura felt a fire in her chest start to ignite at those very words as Danny pushed forward in her one sided conversation.

"I'm going to Princeton on a sports scholarship." She said proudly, turning them to dance in another direction, and nearly take Laura's big toe off entirely.

Laura nodded, already bored of the conversation and Danny in general. Thankfully the entertainment staff showed up then, the music becoming livelier as one took the piano player's place, and then there was Carmilla with Ell on her arm. Which Laura should have figured, beautiful people go with other beautiful people; that was a science she understood.

"The scholarship is mostly for track and field." Danny continued as if she didn't even notice the change in the room, but Laura's eyes didn't leave Carmilla as she and Ell take the dance floor, it was an art all on its own as they moved as one instead of two.

"Who are they?" Laura asked, hoping to veer Danny off of her whole ego-boosting tangent.

Danny looked up and over at Carmilla who dips Ell before pulling her back up and moving them both into a new dance. "They're the dance people." She scoffs, "But clearly they don't know how to do anything past that. If they're just going to show off what they can do together, there's no way they're going to sell lessons."

Laura heard Danny speaking, but her eyes focused on Mr. Lawrence as his face turned into one of disapproval as he started to near Carmilla and Ell, no doubt ready to tell them to stop dancing.

Carmilla appeared to be one step ahead of him though, whispering something to Ell, before spinning her off into a resort guest's unknowing arms and she herself taking the hand of an older gentleman that was standing nearby.

Mr. Lawrence nodded his head once, suddenly okay with the whole situation, as long as it meant that they were keeping the guests happy and not themselves, after all work was work and they could have their playtime later.

XXX

As if dancing wasn't enough, Danny thought it was a great idea to take Laura to a movie that the resort was showing. Around half way through it, Laura waited for Danny to go to the bathroom or to be called out by her father, and then she made a break for it.

She decided that it was too early to return to her cabin for the night, so she decided to do a bit more wandering, specifically near the area that she had seen Carmilla disappear of to a few hours ago.

There was a heavy pulse of loud music coming from one of the larger cabins, one that probably housed the majority of the resort's staff.

"Dammit."

Laura whirled around at the sudden voice, finding the valet guy from earlier struggling to carry three watermelons. She fought the urge to laugh as she walked over to him. "Do you need any help?"

"Yeah, that would be nice." He said, before looking up and shaking his head quickly, "Actually, never mind, I can manage."

Laura raised a brow in confusion before speaking, "Wilson, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah, but call me Kirsch."

"Okay, Kirsch. Why can't I help you?"

"Because you're a guest of the resort, and you're not really supposed to be in the staff quarters." He said, pushing his knee up to keep one of the melons from slipping.

Laura reached out, grabbing one of the watermelons and holding it to her chest away from him. "I can just help you get it there, I'll leave right after."

Kirsch nods his head nervously, looking around at their surroundings to make sure no one could see them. "Okay, but just know I could get in serious trouble for this, so you can't tell anyone you were here tonight."

Laura nodded, "Lead the way."

Once they reached the main house of staff, they could see inside the propped open door to find that a party was in full swing. Entertainment staff crowded the floor, dancing sensually and professionally.

Kirsch stood proudly in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear, as Laura stood beside him dazed. It was just so incredible how they were moving. "How did they learn to do that?" She asked in wonder.

Kirsch shrugs, "Don't know, but want to try it?" He asks, waggling his brows.

Laura blushes, shaking her head. "No thanks."

Kirsch chuckles as he leads Laura to a long table holding numerous trays and bowls of food along with what could just be the entire stock of a liquor store.

Laura turns at the sound of cheering, catching Carmilla and Ell entering the cabin. She watched as Carmilla is handed a bottle to drink from before handing it back and grabbing Ell, dragging her towards the center of the floor to dance. Again, they moved around as one, a bit more provocative in company of their friends and coworkers, but still with such professional precision.

"You'd think they were a couple." Kirsch said, sipping from a bottle of beer.

Laura turned to him confused, "Aren't they?"

He shook his head, "Not since they were kids."

The song ends as a new one begins, Carmilla and Ell separating to dance with others around the room.

Laura watched Carmilla's every move, entranced.

Carmilla stopped in front of them, looking between Kirsch and Laura before asking, "What's she doing here?"

Kirsch shrugged, standing up proudly, "She came with me."

Laura bit her lip before speaking up, interrupting their little staring contest, "I carried a watermelon."

Carmilla turned to look at her, one brow raised before turning back to Kirsch and nodding, walking back over to Ell.

Laura thought of numerous ways to beat herself over the head, deciding on asking Kirsch if he would be so kind as to smash the bottle in his hand over her head.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as Ell and Carmilla separated once more, this time giving Laura a damn near heart attack when Carmilla wagged her finger at her, the universal hand gesture for 'come here'.

Turning to Kirsch for confirmation to see him shrug, she walked over to Carmilla, holding her breath as the darker haired girl immediately grabbed her hips and tugged her closer. She quickly showed her how to thrust her hips towards her, beginning a slow grind as she directed her to look in her eyes. "This is how we stay in sync, look away from my eyes, and we lose rhythm."

Laura nodded as Carmilla grabbed her hips pulling her closer again, not looking away from her eyes as she started a grind to go along with the song playing. When Carmilla seemed to be pleased with Laura's quick picking up of the brief lesson, she pulled Laura's arms up to dangle around her shoulders and meet at the back of her neck. They were both smiling, sweaty from dancing and close proximity of many.

Laura started to get into it, swaying her hips, as they pulled apart slightly to dance instead of grind. The song slows down, finishing out, as Laura continues to dance, suddenly not so against the act, before realizing that Carmilla was no longer beside her, and had disappeared within the crowd, leaving her dazed and confused.

Maybe dancing wasn't so bad after all.


	2. Lesson Two: Personal Dance Space

center"You don't tell me what to do

And you don't tell me what to say

And please, when I go out with you

Don't put me on display."

-'You Don't Own Me' by The Blow Monkeys/center

centerXXX/center

"I think the hospital will be pleased to hear about all of this money they're about to receive for the research labs." Alaric Hollis says, sipping from a mug of coffee.

"Well what can I say, when you have as much money as I do, you don't really know what to do with all of it, so I'm glad I can put it into something that'll do some good." Andrew Lawrence said in a casual tone, one that if you weren't paying to his every word, would take away from how awfully arrogant he sounded.

Laura fought the urge to roll her eyes, as she watched the waiter with short red hair refill their water glasses.

Mr. Lawrence looked up at them, "Ah, LaFontaine."

"Yes, sir?" They asked, looking up as they continued pouring their drinks.

"Could you tell Lola that the updated schedule has been laminated and is waiting for her at the front desk?"

LaFontaine nodded their head, turning away from the table, and heading off towards wherever Lola was.

Laura waited a beat before wiping her mouth with the corner of her napkin, and excusing herself to the bathroom.

On the way there, she caught sight of Carmilla and Ell speaking in hushed tones and a hurried pace. Neither looked too happy, as Carmilla quickly kissed Ell's cheek, nodding to her once more, and headed off in the direction of the parking lot.

Laura saw her chance, continuing over to the bathrooms, and stopped in front of Ell. "You're a really great dancer." She said kindly, hoping Ell would understand that she wasn't saying it just to say it. She really meant it; she was great, especially when she danced with Carmilla.

"Yeah well when you get kicked out by your mother at sixteen, you don't have much choice but to run with your passions." Ell said, her tone bored and dismissive.

"Well I certainly envy you for sticking to your guns."

Ell scoffed, giving Laura a look of distaste, before walking away, leaving Laura confused and with a full bladder.

centerXXX/center

Laura stood beside her father inside the gazebo once more, waiting for their turn in the dance lessons.

Carmilla was the only dance instructor present, currently dancing with a woman in her mid-forties, and Laura couldn't take her eyes off of her.

"How's everyone doing tonight?" Mr. Lawrence asked, coming to a stop in front of them.

Alaric smiled warmly at the man, motioning towards his daughter. "Laura here's just waiting for a waltz."

Laura fought the urge to roll her eyes, and as if things couldn't get any worse, Danny showed up then to harass Carmilla.

"Where's Ell, she's being asked for." Danny asked the dancer, loud enough for Laura to be able to hear from across the gazebo with the music on low.

"She's on a break." Carmilla said as she twirled the woman in her arms.

"She's been on an awful lot of breaks lately."

Carmilla stopped dancing, glaring up at the ginger. "She needed a break."

Danny chuckled darkly, shaking her head. "Let's just hope it's not a break that lasts the whole night again."

Please don't come over here, please don't come over here, Laura thought as she watching Carmilla go back to dancing, and Danny make her way over to where she stood.

"Want to go for a walk?" Danny asks once she reaches Laura.

Laura looks to both of their fathers, before nodding her head timidly, "Just for a little while."

centerXXX/center

Laura swung her feet off of the dock, staring out at the water lit up by the glare of the moon and stars above.

"Beautiful night tonight," Danny says from the spot next to her, Laura can see her moving closer in her peripheral, "But not nearly as beautiful as you."

Laura stifled a laugh, choking back the feeling of wanting to vomit, and stood to her feet. "My dad's probably looking for me."

Danny stood with her, shaking her head with a smirk. "If your dad thinks you're with me, he'll be the happiest father at Lawrence's."

Faking a smile, Laura looked away from Danny, and back out at the line of woods across the lake. What she would give to simply hide within them for a single night.

"You know, I'm your best bet around here anyway," Danny continued, "Karnstein on the other hand, she's definitely someone you want to stay away from, nothing but a deadbeat who's got her head in the clouds." She turned to Laura then, "But enough about her, say, are you hungry?"

At Laura's quick nod, anything to change the subject, she was dragged down to the dining hall, her arm nearly coming out of its socket.

"You can have whatever you want, Laura. What are you in the mood for?" Danny asked as she led her into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, she starts rattling off desserts. "We've got rice pudding, lemon meringue pie, chocolate mousse."

Laura's attention was off of Danny now though, hearing someone crying quietly close by, she turned her head to see Ell hiding near the freezers with her head pressed into her knees. At closer inspection, Ell looked up, making eye contact with Laura, and that's all it took for her to know that something was wrong.

Cutting Danny off from her grocery list, Laura spoke up. "I should really get back, I just got a text from my dad. He wants to see me."

"Oh, well alright," Danny said dumbly, shutting the fridge, "I'll walk you back."

Laura ditched Danny near the gazebo, quickly grabbing Kirsch's attention, "It's Ell."

Nothing more had to be said, Kirsch quickly got Carmilla out of dance lessons, and they were off, walking at a brisk pace back to the dining hall.

Entering the hall, Carmilla turned around to glare at Laura. "What's she still doing here?"

"Incase Danny comes back." Kirsch says quickly, looking at Laura apologetically.

"What's wrong with Ell?" Laura asks, ignoring the rude way she was being spoken about.

"She's pregnant." Kirsch supplies, as they round into the kitchen.

"Kirsch, what the fuck? You don't think do you?" Carmilla yells, giving Kirsch a look as if to tell him that she would kick his ass later for spilling Ell's secret.

"Do you know who's it is?" Laura asks.

"If I knew the shit weasel, I'd wring his fucking neck." Carmilla grits out.

"You don't know who it is?"

"Ell won't tell her." Kirsch said when Carmilla failed to respond.

They find Ell curled up in the same position Laura had found her. Carmilla immediately falls into protective mode, dropping to her knees, and wrapping Ell up in her arms, whispering small reassurances into her hair.

Kirsch stands over the both of them, looking down at them helplessly.

Laura watches from further away, stopping short so as not to infiltrate their little bubble. She listened as Carmilla told Ell that she was okay, and that she wouldn't let anything happen to her, feeling something clench in her chest and tug around her heart.

Carmilla stood slowly, picking Ell up, and cradling her to her chest. "Let's get you home."

centerXXX/center

Kirsch and Laura walked in silence back to Ell's cabin. It was dark and quiet, the majority of the resort asleep.

Carmilla's voice traveled though as they opened the door- "I'll take care of it."

Ell shook her head, sitting up on the couch, pulling the blanket further up her legs. "I can't take your money Carm, it'll burn a hole right through your entire savings."

"That's my business." Carmilla spits out, angrily pacing the floor in front of the couch. "I'll figure it out, I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"So what, I'm not allowed to worry about you?"

"You've been taking care of me almost my entire life Ell, let me take care of you." Carmilla said her voice filled with guilt and worry.

Ell blows out a shaky breath, leaning her head back on the couch, "This is hopeless. I'm just going to have to have the baby."

"And what, say goodbye to your career? If Lawrence finds out you're going to be out of a job." Carmilla says, stopping her pacing for the moment as she stares pointedly at her closest and oldest friend.

Laura moved further into the room, hearing the door shut behind Kirsch. The sound was deafening as the two who already occupied the room turned to face them.

"There's got to be a way to work this out." Laura said, biting her lip nervously, afraid that she had overstepped.

Ell looked Laura over, wiping at the corners of her eyes with the tip of her finger so as not to ruin her makeup further. "Laura, is that your name?" At Laura's nod she continued, "Well Laura, you don't know shit about my problems."

"Actually, I told her." Kirsch says, swallowing around his words, hoping that Carmilla doesn't decide that now was the time to throttle him for his talking out of turn.

"Aw Kirsch, now why would you do that? She's just going to go tell Lawrence, and we're all gonna get fired." Ell said exasperatedly.

"No I won't, it's none of their business." Laura said angrily.

"Yeah, well it's none of yours either," Ell said bitterly, "Please Laura, save yourself the waste of time, and get lost."


	3. Lesson Three: Dance Partners

center" Now your daddy don't mind **  
**And your Mommy don't mind **  
**If we have another dance, ya"

-'Stay' by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs/center

centerXXX/center

Laura followed LaF around that morning as they set the tables for breakfast.

"I just don't know what to do, what should I do?" Laura asked.

"Ell told you to stay out of it, so you stay out of it." LaF said simply as they filled the complementary glasses up with water.

"But, they need the money to get the abortion."

"And yet, you still stay out of it." LaF said, moving to the next table.

Laura sighed, trying to figure out a reason for why she should still be able to help.

"Look, I can't tell you what to do, but between me and you, if you screw up, Carmilla iwill/i kill you."

Laura froze, cocking her head to the side before following them throughout the room once more.

centerXXX/center

Laura found her father golfing.

When he first joined the program at the hospital, Alaric made a bunch of friends who went golfing on the weekends and soon picked up the hobby himself.

"Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ric turned to face his daughter, setting the golf club back into his bag, and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sure thing, what is it you want to talk about?"

"Remember when you told me that if someone is in trouble that I should try and help them?" At his nod Laura continued, "Well I have a friend who needs money and-"

"How much?" Ric asked, pulling off his golfing gloves and reaching into his back pocket.

"What?" Laura asked, confused.

"How much do you need to help your friend?"

"Dad, I-"

"Laura, I know you wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important, so just tell me how much you need and it'll be ready by dinner tonight."

Laura grinned, surging up to press a kiss to her father's cheek and hug him. "Thank you so much."

centerXXX/center

Later that night Laura returned to the staff house, finding Ell and Carmilla dancing slowly, their foreheads pressed together.

"Hey, I got to talk to you guys." Laura said, grabbing their attention. Quickly finding Kirsch, she pulled all three of them aside and handed the envelope of money over to Ell. "Here's the money so you can call that doctor."

"What?" Ell asked, peeking inside the envelope.

"My father lent me the money."

"Well it takes a real saint to ask daddy." Carmilla spit out venomously.

"I can't use this." Ell said, handing it back over to Laura, "I can't take your father's money."

"Of course you can." Carmilla said, looking between the two, "They clearly have the money to spare considering all it took was her asking."

Kirsch turns to Laura somberly, "I can only get her an appointment for Thursday."

"Ok, take my money and get her the appointment."

"What he's saying is that Thursday is the same day Ell and I have our dance competition." Carmilla spoke up.

"Can't you find somebody else to take Ell's place?"

"No I can't. We all have jobs around here. Anybody that could've taken her place is covering for her while she was going to the competition." Carmilla threw her hands up in frustration, "What, iyou/i want to do it?" She chuckled distastefully, "You wanna continue solving all of our problems little miss Lauronica Mars?"

There was a moment of silence as the people around them continued to dance, the music and chattering almost deafening.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Kirsch said first, looking Laura over.

Carmilla's eyes widened, shaking her head, "It was a joke."

Kirsch shook his head, "No, no, clearly she can move. I mean that was obvious from the other night when you danced with her."

Carmilla looked over at Ell to find her nodding along with Kirsch. "No, this is the dumbest idea I've ever heard, she can't fill in for Ell."

"I can barely do the meringue let alone the mamba." Laura said.

Carmilla jumped at the admission, "See? She can't even do the meringue."

"Carm, you're a strong partner, you can carry anybody." Ell argued.

Carmilla continued to shake her head, "She can't do the dance if she can't even meringue."

Laura snaps, growing tired of being told what she can and can't do, especially from Carmilla. "I can do it."

"Excuse me?" Carmilla asked in disbelief, turning to face her.

"The dance, I can do it."

"Well it looks like you just found my replacement." Ell said in clear amusement and relief.

"This is ridiculous." Carmilla said, leaving the room.

Ell rolled her eyes, looking over at Laura; "We'll see you in the studio tomorrow morning."


End file.
